Touch typing - Wikipedia. This article is about the method of typing. For keyboard on a touchscreen, see . Home row keys are circled.

Index fingers are placed on F and J and remaining fingers fall as shown. Fingers then match their colours on the keyboard. An alternative method for the top row is not described in the section Other methods; split keyboards often support this alternate method. Touch typing (also called touch type or touch keyboarding) is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory.

Touch typing typically involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard (the home row) and having them reach for other keys. Both two- handed touch typing and one- handed touch typing are possible. Frank Edward Mc. Gurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah who taught typing classes, reportedly invented touch typing in 1.

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On a standard keyboard for English speakers the home row keys are: . The keyboard is called a QWERTY keyboard because these are the first six letters on the keyboard. Most modern computer keyboards have a raised dot or bar on the home keys for the index fingers to help touch typists maintain and rediscover the correct position on the keyboard quickly with no need to look at the keys. More recently, the ability to touch type on touchscreen phones has been made possible with the use of specialized virtual keyboard software for touch typing. History. This allows engaging the second printing bar of the typewriter before the first falls down, increasing the speed of the mechanism. In English speaking countries for example the first row is QWERTY, but in French speaking countries it is AZERTY. Though mechanical typewriters are now rarely used, moves to change the layout to increase speed have been largely ignored or resisted due to familiarity with the existing layout among touch typists.

On July 2. 5, 1. 88. Mc. Gurrin, who was reportedly the only person using touch typing at the time, won a decisive victory over Louis Traub (operating Caligraph with eight- finger method) in a typing contest held in Cincinnati.

The results were displayed on the front pages of many newspapers. Speeds attained by other typists in other typing competitions at the time suggest that they must have been using similar systems. Keep the hands as nearly as possible in one position over the key- board. The most common other form of typing is search and peck typing (or two- fingered typing). This method is slower than touch typing because instead of relying on the memorized position of keys, the typist is required to find each key by sight and move fingers a greater distance. Many idiosyncratic styles in between those two exist .

The accepted average typing speed. Every individual learns at a different pace. This increases productivity and reduces the number of errors.

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People using self- taught typing strategies were found to be as fast as trained typists.. Learning typically includes first printing exercises containing only letters on or near the standard position and then gradually mastering other rows. It is important to learn placing fingers into the start position blindly as the hands are frequently raised from the keyboard to operate the line feed lever (in the past) or (more recently) the computer mouse. The keys F and J frequently contain some surface features that allow the typist to recognize them by touch alone, thus removing the need to look down at the keys to reset the fingers at the home row. The typing speed can be increased gradually and speeds of 6.

WPM or higher can be achieved. The rate of speed increase varies between individuals. Many websites and software products are available to learn touch typing and many of these are free. Learning touch typing can be stressful both to the fingers as well as the mind in the beginning, but once it is learned to a decent level, it exerts minimal stress on the fingers.

While practicing, it is important to ensure that there are no weak keys. Typing speed is typically determined by how slow these weak keys are typed rather than how fast the remaining keys are typed. If a stage is reached where irrespective of the amount of practice, typing speed is not increasing, it is advisable to let some time pass and continue serious practice thereafter as typing speeds typically tend to increase with time even when no serious practice is done. Home row. On the most common type of English language keyboard, the QWERTY layout, .

This helps returning the fingers to the home row for touch typing. For instance, to type the word poll on a QWERTY keyboard, one would place all of one's fingers on the home row. The ring finger, located on the . Finally, the same ring finger will remain on the . Experienced typists can do this at speeds of over 1. Proper posture can greatly reduce risk of injury. On the right side of the keyboard: index .

Probably these two methods reflect the layout of the typewriters from early days when some of them had no 0 and/or 1 keys. There exist special ergonomic keyboards designed for both typing methods.

The keyboard is split between the keys 5 and 6 or 6 and 7. Some specialized high- end computer keyboards are designed for touch typists. For example, many manufacturers provide blank mechanical keyboards. A trained touch typist should not mind using a blank keyboard. This kind of keyboard may force hunt and peck users to type without looking, similar to Braille keyboards used by the visually impaired. See also. Qwerty's effect, by reducing those annoying clashes, was to speed up typing rather than slow it down. Mrs. Barnes: How to Become Expert in Typewriting: A Complete Instructor Designed Especially for the Remington, Rather J.

Barnes: Complete Caligraph instructor or How to Become Expert in Typewriting, Rather J. Retrieved 2. 7 September 2.